25 years ago today, Voyager I turned around to take a photo of Earth on its way out of the Solar System. You are looking at it. Our planet—6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away from the spacecraft—is that tiny pale blue dot, "a mote of dustsuspended in a sunbeam." It is one of the most important photos ever.
I have seen countless science fiction movies and documentaries about the future of humanity. None of them were as inspiring, beautiful, and realistic as this extraordinary short film by Erik Wernquist, narrated by Carl Sagan. Watch it and get ready for goosebumps.
The Pale Blue Dot—a book that should be mandatory for every single student in the world—is a vision of the cosmos that will inspire you to be a better human being. It's full of memorable passages but this is the best—the one that gives its title to the book.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has just captured another Pale Blue Dot image while orbiting Saturn. The difference is that, in this view, unlike the one from July 19, 2013, that featured Earth, the blue orb is Uranus, imaged by Cassini for the first time. So that tiny dot hanging out there in the blackness of space is…
Mothlight Creative's atmospheric short animation From Dust uses a segment from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot reflections as part of its soundtrack, letting Sagan's words wash over us as we watch a fresh journey into space.
Carl Sagan's timeless ode to Earth is all the more compelling in this captivating treatment from Reid Gower and The Sagan Series.
The image above is what Earth looks like from Saturn, a stunning reminder from NASA's Cassini spacecraft that we're nothing but a small speck of dust. And sometimes, as xkcd points out below, that can be quite literal.
Last Friday, people the world over had their first chance ever to smile for a picture of Earth taken from outer space, when NASA's Cassini orbiter photographed our moon and planet from almost one-billion miles away.
Carl Sagan's lyrical and resonant ode to the planet Earth as seen from a great distance receives a lovely companion animation thanks to the animation studio ORDER. Much like Sagan's original musings, ORDER's animation is understated, while contemplating our place in a vast universe.
The spacecraft was a long way from home.
